'Never say never': Nigel Farage hints he could rejoin Tory party as part of 'dream ticket' with Boris Johnson
11 December 2023, 12:50 | Updated: 11 December 2023, 12:53
Nigel Farage has hinted he could rejoin the Conservative Party as part of a 'dream ticket' with former prime minister Boris Johnson.
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Speaking after he finished third in I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here, Farage said "never say never" when asked about the prospect of rejoining the Tory party.
Farage, who has been a member the Reform party since 2019 and helped to set up UKIP in 1993, has been a vocal critic of the current government and the prime minister Rishi Sunak.
It follows reports that a number of Tories have privately spoken to Farage and Johnson in a bid to get them to join forces and save the party from electoral oblivion.
Fearful of the Reform Party, which says it is confident of taking votes from the Tories at the next general election, rebel MPs believe bringing back Johnson would be the only way to save the party against their challenge from the right.
Neither Farage nor Johnson are sitting members of Parliament, meaning the pair's most straightforward route into power would be to stand in safe seats at the next general election and become MPs if they win.
However, either one could become prime minister or attend cabinet via positions in the House of Lords. For example, David Cameron, recently made a lord, is foreign secretary without being a sitting member of Parliament.
Johnson's team has so far denied there were any plans to team up with Farage to 'save' the Tory party.
“Boris Johnson is currently writing a book and is supporting the Government,” his spokesperson told the Mail on Sunday.
A source close to Mr Farage, who could yet see his popularity boosted by winning I’m A Celebrity, said any agreement between the two would “soon end in tears”.
And a Reform official said Mr Farage will “start dominating the agenda” after the ITV gameshow ends.
“Within about six to eight weeks we'll be polling in the high teens, and the Tories will start to slip below 20 per cent,” they said.
“At that point between five and ten MPs will realise the game's up, and defect to us. Then it's game over.“We're looking at the last majority Tory administration of our lifetime. We're going to destroy them.”
